The invention relates to a tubular bag packaging for bar-shaped food products, in particular for chocolate bars, wherein the tubular bag packaging extends in a longitudinal direction and in a transverse direction and comprises a film or foil with longitudinal edges extending in the longitudinal direction. The film or foil comprises a seal section extending along a first longitudinal edge and a flap section adjoining a second longitudinal edge and comprising a further seal section extending along the second longitudinal edge. The film or foil is closed to form a tubular bag at the seal sections with formation of a continuous back seam extending in the longitudinal direction and embodied as a fold-over seam. The tubular bag packaging is sealed at transverse edges positioned opposite each other in the longitudinal direction by means of transverse seams extending in the transverse direction.
The invention further concerns a food product comprising such a tubular bag packaging and a method for producing such a tubular bag packaging.
For packaging bar-shaped food products, in particular chocolate bars, so-called tubular bag packaging is used that is formed of a film or foil with longitudinal edges extending in the longitudinal direction. The film or foil has along its first longitudinal edge a sealing section and a flap section adjoining the second longitudinal edge with a further seal section extending along the second longitudinal edge. The film or foil is wrapped about the bar-shaped food product to a tubular shape and closed or sealed at the seal sections with formation of a continuous back seam that extends in longitudinal direction and is embodied as a fold-over seam. The fold-over seam including the flap section and the seal sections is folded over along a folding line and is placed flat onto the back of the packaging. Moreover, the tubular bag packaging at its transverse edges extending transversely to the longitudinal direction is sealed by means of transverse seams extending in the transverse direction.
The back seam that is embodied as a fold-over seam serves not only for producing the tubular shape but also for providing a configuration for a targeted opening of the packaging by the user. In particular, it is desired to open the tubular bag packaging at the back seam without tearing the film or foil material in an uncontrolled fashion. Remaining unconsumed quantities of the packaged contents can therefore remain in the already opened tubular bag packaging and can be stored therein.
Opening the packaging at the back seam is however difficult. A configuration of the tubular bag packaging as a so-called “pack with a snap” or “snap-open pack” is known in which the still packaged chocolate bar by snapping is broken apart and at the same time the back seam is pulled open. However, this requires that the chocolate bar is sufficiently hard for such a targeted breaking action. At higher temperatures, however, the chocolate becomes so soft that breaking of the back seam is not possible or possible only with difficulty. Moreover, this snap-open possibility is not always recognized by the consumer so that the consumer attempts to tear open the back seam of the packaging. However, such a tearing action has the result that the ripped-open film or foil will continue to tear in an uncontrolled fashion. Reuse of the open packaging for storing the unconsumed quantities of the package contents is therefore not possible or only possible to a limited extent.